Intersil unleashed a new set of chips last week that it says both extends the range of Wi-Fi networks and reduces the power drain these wireless networks create on laptops and other devices.
The chips are power amplifiers, standard components in access points and client interface cards that make up a wireless Wi-Fi network. Amplifiers take the weak signal created by a network interface's transmitter signal encoding circuitry and make it strong enough to traverse the gap to the receiver.
The new Intersil power amplifier uses additional transistors to create a more powerful signal that can travel 200 feet [about 60 metres] when used indoors, about 25 feet [over 8 metres] further than earlier generations of Intersil power amplifiers, said Intersil senior manager for strategic marketing Bruce Kraemer.
This is particularly useful at the edge of a network, where the signal is always weakest--by effectively doubling the signal strength at this point, reliability is improved.
One side effect of the new amplifier, Kraemer says, is that it helps combat the chief complaint among most users of Wi-Fi wireless networks -- the networks sap a device's battery too quickly.
Higher signal levels are less susceptible to noise, and so the number of retransmissions required to recover corrupted packets goes down. "The less time you spend on the air, the less battery consumption there is," he said.
The Intersil chips are available now, he said. Intersil is one of several companies selling power amplifiers to makers of Wi-Fi equipment.
Most Wi-Fi equipment makers have generally turned to companies such as Maxim and Hitatchi for their power amplifiers, said Navin Sabharwal, a wireless analyst with ABI Research.
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